Deploy a VM from template with PowerCLI
Posted: February 17, 2012 Filed under: PowerShell / PowerCLI, VMware | Tags: deploy vm from template, deploy vm from template powercli, powercli, small vm, vm powercli Leave a commentNow that I have a small VM for my test lab, I converted it to a template and looked for a cool way to deploy several VMs from this template with PowerCLI. Turns out it’s actually really easy, anti-climactic, even. The good folks over at VMPros.nl have an excellent tutorial on this topic. Alan Renouf (Twitter @alanrenouf) was the first to comment on their blogpost. He included a nice for loop to replace a single line for each VM deployment. I incorporated Alan’s suggestion as well as a few options from the PowerCLI New-VM cmdlet reference page, like adding the VM to a resource pool and then powering on the VM.
Here’s the code:
A Small Virtual Machine for a Test Lab
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Tid-bits, VMware | Tags: damn small linux, damn small linux ova, damn small linux ovf, damn small linux virtual machine, dsl, dsl ova, dsl ovf, dsl virtual machine, dsl vm, linux dsl, mobile test, ova, ovf, small virtual machine, small vm, test lab, testlab 38 CommentsGet my 57MB Damn Small Linux OVA here (rename file extension from .doc to .ova): DOWNLOAD
While I’m traveling, I use my laptop as a mobile test lab. To do anything of significance, I like to run two VMware ESXi 5 hosts, vCenter Server 5, a domain controller (both on x64 Windows Server 2008 R2) and for my recent study focus, a NetApp DataONTAP 8.1 simulator, all on VMware Workstation 8. All these things are great, but with “only” 8 GB RAM to pull from, my resources are limited and I’m pushing RAM utilization to the max before I even start running VMs, as you can see below. The only thing saving me is an Intel 320 Series SSD.